Stranded Airline Passengers Turn To Private Jets To Beat Snow Chaos

Online, December 2, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Online private jet network, PrivateFly.com reported a surge in online enquiries in the last 48 hours, with significant numbers of short notice bookings made via its global network from both leisure and business passengers, left stranded by major UK airport closures in heavy snow.

Private jets can land at many more airports than larger aircraft, and give optimal flexibility to passengers: Itineraries can be changed at short notice to work around bad weather conditions and find 'gaps' in the snow - as was also seen during the ash cloud crisis earlier in the year. On Wednesday, increased private jet movements were seen at many private jet airports including Farnborough, Luton, Stansted and London City - which had remained open for all or part of the day. Luton and Stansted's private jet facilities were particularly busy on both Wednesday and Thursday, with unprecedented demand from flights unable to use other locations.

PrivateFly.com reported particular demand from passengers left stranded at badly-hit Gatwick airport, being able to use nearby Farnborough or transferring to Luton. Adam Twidell, PrivateFly's CEO comments: "We've seen significant numbers of passengers stranded by the weather, some of whom are using private jet charter for the first time and booking at very short notice. One family was due to connect at Gatwick for an airline flight to Malaga but their incoming flight was diverted into Manchester instead. They chartered a Citation private jet at short notice, seating six, which flew them home directly to Malaga from Manchester for €6500 - just over €1000 per head".

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Notes to editors:
About PrivateFly:

PrivateFly is an online booking network that makes it quicker, easier and more cost effective to arrange private jet charter.

With over 2700 operators registered worldwide, PrivateFly is the only online aggregator for private jet charter in Europe.

PrivateFly combines online efficiency and transparency with offline expertise to offer a full-service VIP charter service to direct customers and partners. The bespoke software has been created in-house specifically to meet the needs of charter customers and operators.

In February 2010 PrivateFly launched the world's first iPhone application to provide instant private jet pricing on a mobile phone.

PrivateFly was announced as one of the Smarta 100 companies 2010, by a judging panel including Dragon's Den's Deborah Meaden and other leading entrepreneurs, such as Bebo founder Michael Birch. The company also won the innovation category of the Best Business Awards in February 2010.

Founded in 2007, PrivateFly is based in St Albans, Hertfordshire and earlier this year secured first round investment funding to expand the business within the UK and selected international markets.

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Katrina Suppiah
Publicite Ltd
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